Content on this page requires a newer version of Adobe Flash Player.

About the Authors, Kerry Kelly Novick and Jack Novick, PhD

Kerry Kelly Novick and Jack Novick, PhD, have been working with children and families on thoughtful, positive parenting techniques for more than four decades. Psychoanalysts and psychologists, they are the founders of the innovative Allen Creek Preschool in Ann Arbor, Michigan. As internationally recognized authorities on child and adolescent development, they teach at universities and training centers throughout the world and lecture frequently to groups of parents, grandparents, teachers, pediatricians, and nurses. Together and separately, the Novicks have published dozens of newspaper articles and papers in professional journals, as well as three books for professionals.

Kerry Kelly Novick received degrees in Comparative Literature from the University of California at Berkeley and Psychology from University College, London.

Kerry is a past President of the international Association for Child Psychoanalysis.

Jack Novick received a degree in Literature and Mathematics from McGill University, his MA in Experimental Psychology from the New School for Social Research, and his PhD in Clinical Psychology from New York University.

Both trained as child psychoanalysts with Anna Freud in London. Jack went on to do adult training at the British Psycho-Analytic Institute and Kerry at the New York Freudian Society. Long associated with the University of Michigan Medical School, they are both in clinical practice with families, children, adolescents, and adults in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

OTHER WORKS by Jack Novick and Kerry Kelly Novick

FEARFUL SYMETRY

“They give us a landmark work. This book will prove indispensable to mental health professionals.” Leonard Shengold, M.D. on Fearful Symmetry

“Their clarity of thought and clinical focus make their book a joy to read.” Robert L. Tyson, M.D., F.R.C.Psych. on Fearful Symmetry

WORKING WITH PARENTS MAKES THERAPY WORK

Published in 2005

“Working With Parents Makes Therapy Work is an extraordinarily important contribution. Their work underscores the inevitable ongoing interaction between parent functioning and child development.” Leon Hoffman, M.D., Director, Pacella Parent-Child Center

“This book offers further elaboration and new applications of the Novicks’ earlier research on the ‘two-systems model.’ It is so well-written … it represents a bold new vision of the role of parents in the psychoanalytic treatment of child and adolescent patients.” Jerrold R. Brandell, Wayne State University School of Social Work

GOOD GOODBYES: KNOWING HOW TO END IN PSYCHOTHERAPY AND PSYCHOANALYSIS

Published in 2006

Within the framework of the therapeutic relationship and a clearly articulated set of goals for therapy, Jack Novick and Kerry Kelly Novick described how to recognize and respond to termination themes from the very beginning of treatment. Each phase of treatment brings its own challenges, as well as the risk of premature ending by patient and therapist.
With vivid clinical examples from all diagnostic groups and all stages of development, the Novicks demonstrate how to engage each patient in building the “emotional muscle” needed to master life’s challenges, transform early losses, and integrate new experiences of joy and sadness into the personality.
“Through vivid and compelling vignettes … they demonstrate that … a patient’s system of self-regulation can be transformed from one that is joyless, constricted and closed to one that is healthy, alive and open.” William B. Meyer, MSW, BCD, Duke University Medical Center